The present invention relates to a swivel bearing for an automobile sun visor, and more particularly to a swivel bearing that accommodates the shaft of the sun visor with some "play". The modified swivel bearing facilitates mounting of the sun visor to a vehicle and reduces mechanical stress that may otherwise develop due to hardware misalignments.
The swivel bearing includes a bearing housing which can be fastened to the body of the vehicle. A conical mounting bore extends through the bearing housing for accommodating therein the short mounting arm of an L-shaped sun visor shaft. The longer support arm of the shaft supports the body or main panel of the sun visor. The short mounting arm of the shaft does not have a uniform axial cross section. Rather, it tapers conically and has a smaller cross section near its free end. The mounting arm is long enough that the free end of the mounting arm protrudes out of the mounting bore of the bearing housing and that end bears a compression spring and other hardware to retain the mounting arm in the bearing housing.
The longer support arm of the L-shaped sun visor shaft passes through the upper edge region of the sun visor body. At least a portion of the free end of the support arm is exposed and this exposed portion can be detachably attached to an outer support housing which is fastened to the body of the vehicle in the familiar manner. The sun visor body can be rotated around an axis of rotation defined by the support arm to a position to partially block the windshield. Alternatively, the visor body can be rotated about its short mounting arm, which enables blocking of the side window.
The sun visor body can be supported at two ends, namely at the swivel bearing and at its outer end, but only when the visor body is located in front of the windshield. When the visor body is at the side window position, the sun visor is supported only on the swivel bearing.
The support arm of the sun visor shaft should be precisely aligned with the outer support housing to assure unimpeded and stress free removal and insertion of the shaft into and out of the outer support housing. If they are not precisely aligned, mechanical stresses develop, which can lead to deformations in the swivel bearing region. However, exact alignment of the sunvisor shaft at both the swivel bearing end and at the outer support housing is difficult due to manufacturing tolerances of both the sun visor and the vehicle.
Federal Republic of Germany Utility Model No. 1 921 866 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,923) describes a swivel bearing for automobile sun visors which has a mounting housing which is fastenable to the body of a vehicle and an L-shaped sun-visor shaft. The mounting arm of the sun-visor shaft is seated in a mounting bore by way of a rotary member which is in turn swingably mounted in a mounting receiver built into the bearing housing. This swivel bearing arrangement has the advantage of providing "play" for the sun-visor shaft so that it may be installed in a stressless manner into the vehicle. But the design is rather complicated and costly.